Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Israel has far more military might. It surrounds Gaza and the West Bank. It has argued that Hamas has as its plan, the provocation of Israel to kill enough Palestinians in order to start another Palestinian uprising or to turn the international community against Israel so as to put political pressure on it. Israel argues that this is why Hamas has been shooting rockets from heavily populated areas and there is some justification for that position.

Hamas is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, an organisation which has recently suffered huge losses in Egypt. It has been broken and backed into a corner. Some suggest that the recent rocket strikes are part of a longer term strategy. Each time Israel is provoked into disproportionate responses, Hamas gains more support and retains its political hold on Gaza. When Israel shells schools or UN camps, when it causes unnecessary deaths or makes disproportionate military responses, this lends credence to the Hamas line that violence is the only answer and that Hamas is a necessary evil for the Palestinians. The question remains, of course, as to why Israel uses disproportionate force - 1,245 Palestinian deaths to 56 Israeli deaths. In Palestine, many of these deaths have been deaths of women and children. We have all had a significant moment in following this crisis. I found the day four children were shelled on a beach a cathartic moment for me.

While many Palestinians do not support Hamas or its goal, they do not have many political alternatives. Israel's pressure in the West Bank has weakened Fatah in the eyes of the Palestinian public, increasing support for Hamas and shattering the national unity government. The Israeli Government must work with moderate parties within Palestine in order to remove power from extremists. This process could start by the lifting of blockades on Gaza and a halt to all settlements in the Left Bank. Additionally, Israel could do more to crack down on extremists in its camp and on general anti-Palestinian sentiment. It holds the upper hand and should exercise it responsibly.

So far, the Knesset has paid little more than lip-service to the so-called "price tag" attacks on Israelis, Arabs and Palestinians, despite the outcry from the international community. These attacks target mosques, Arab homes and properties and military bases, suggesting that this is the "cost" for anti-Israeli violence. It is not healthy to have Gaza as a pressure cooker which, as Senator Bacik said, vents violently every few years. Hamas retains power, Palestinian citizens die and Israeli-Palestinian problems remain even harder to resolve as extremism increases.

Yet, when the fighting dies down and the world stops caring and the impetus to solve the situation dissipates until the next time, the death toll on both sides invariably climbs with each round of violence. We need to do something and we need to do it now. I suggest Ireland should step up and play a much stronger part within the European Union in leading a resolution to this conflict. I believe it suits Israel to present the situation we face currently as one of self defence against rocket attacks.

I do not believe Israel has any intention of negotiating other than to return to the situation before the current crisis started. The goal of any future negotiation has to be a long-term resolution of the Palestinian crisis based on the principles I have set out which remain the Labour Party position.